Page 199 - UpperCrust e-Magazine Third Quarter 2024

SEEMA & JAIDEEP MEHROTRA | CELEBRITY BITES

The Mehrotras

A very together couple, both foodies, artist Jaideep and
wife, Seema, exude warmth and love with earthiness,
goodness and joyfulness. A peek into their lifestyle

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor
Location: Olive, Bombay

You were a child prodigy, holding your Including using crazy tools…
first solo painting exhibition at just 12… SM: You have to check his studio. He has
JM: Nothing of the sort, just that my a wall which is stuck with all kinds of tools
mother recognised my potential and and gadgets that he picks up from all over
encouraged me. the world. Including drills and cutters and
SM: As usual. Jai is being modest. Oh electric saws. He is nuts over tools!
yes, he was a little prodigy, painting with JM: I do have an engineering mind.
watercolours even when he was three! During the COVID period, I was very
JM: Well, I did like to draw and paint, helpful around the house. The handyman
use crayons and watercolours as a child who turned into a plumber, carpenter and
but what I really wanted was oil paints electrician!
and nobody was giving that to me. Not
at Mayo, where I was studying (because And cook! We know about your cooking
oil paints were only given to seniors), nor prowess. When did that start?
when I came home for holidays. JM: When I was about 10. I remember
SM: So for his 10th birthday, he adamantly Rauf Ahmed who came to interview me
told his mother the only gift he wanted just before my solo exhibition, writing,
was oil paints! And he got it. “His sisters say he also loves to cook and
JM: I can’t ever forget that day when I was that they try to eat whatever he does cook!”
at Himalaya (the art store at VT) and I SM: I can vouch for it, that he is a great
bought my first few tubes of oil paint, a cook. So will my daughters, who can’t
palette, a knife, a couple of brushes and a have enough of their dad’s cooking.
bottle of turpentine oil. I went home and
painted a bird. I still have it. Really! And what is it about cooking
that really drives you.
And from then on you’ve been painting. JM: Firstly, after a whole day at my studio
JM: Yes, vigorously, passionately, joyfully. when I get into the kitchen, I immediately
relax. I love the synergy between cooking
Successfully, if we may add. And you and painting. Be it the colours, the
never went to any art school? balance, the visual treat, the sense of
JM: No, I did not. But once my art teachers outcome that one beholds, the joy that
at Mayo saw what I was doing they helped flows. And the feeling that I am cooking
and guided me enormously. for my family...Believe me, few emotions
have a parallel to that.
You are very creative in your usage of
different materials. Do you know where it all started?
JM: That’s true. I indulge in all kinds of SM: This cooking experience occurred in
art forms and mediums. Different methods Dubai, in the ‘70s, where Jai was working
and techniques that come to me naturally. at a printing press.

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